15 Minutes - July

 Staff Spotlight: Stevie Chang

--- Sarah Luo

     I have just had the almost imponderable joy of interviewing Stevie is so cool like...or something like that. So I wanted to tie that in with how Stevie’s favorite YouTube channel has to be charlieissocoollike because clearly she wrote that YouTube spotlight a couple months ago, but I can’t say that for sure sadly.

     However, some things I can say for sure are she’s a sophomore in college majoring in applied mathematics, she’s at the twilight of her teenage years, her birthday just happens to be the day of epiphany and her favorite color is blue...wait...green...wait, no...black, hold on...maybe pink. Never mind, all colors are lovely. 

     I’ve known Stevie for almost a year now and I’m still trying to figure out...well...everything about her. Sometimes I can’t understand what she’s saying because she’s so smart; she starts blurting out very Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory)-like statements, but they all happen to be mathematical statements because she’s a math major and then that just makes me want to punch her even more. She’s a super Asian nerd which means she loves online gaming, anime, and manga, which before I met her didn’t think was quite so possible for a girl, but stereotypes don’t apply to Stevie. Ever. She makes her own stereotypes, or trends. Some things you should know about Stevie so that you can kind of understand why she’s so complex.  

     She’s super weird. It’s not like an "ew, you’re geeky" or nerdy weird. It’s just a...wth kind of weird, but it’s so fun and entertaining all at the same time. For example, when I ask her what her favorite food is, she’ll respond “what is this food you speak of. I photosynthesize.” This is such a super nerdy response, but people will just look at her and say...uh wth. She’s that kind of weird. She’s also super nerdy, and it’s not the normal kind of nerdy either, her kind of nerdy...seems kind of unattainable by normal standards. 

     So, if she were to be stuck on an island, the three items she would bring are “a pistol loaded with one shot, Elizabeth Swan, and a rum basement.  If I get lucky, the rum runners will come by and I can barter a ride with them.  If not, I'll have to lash myself a pair of turtles using rope from my own hair.  Or Elizabeth, being the daughter of the governor of the King's colony, will have the entire navy out looking for her, and will build a fire using rum ("which is a vile drink..."). Savvy? (Although I may retract my statement for three other items: a purifying water bottle, flint, and a fully loaded and flight-ready Gundam.)” No, she didn’t memorize all the lines from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Not at all. But then again, she also didn’t memorize the entire script for Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle either. See what I mean? It’s a whole different level of nerdy, but it’s such an impressive level, you’re rendered completely speechless.  

     So perhaps we should move on to a couple more serious topics of her life. Some sports that she has played include high-speed typing, sugar-high table shaking, speed-reading, rolling chair racing, and soccer. Her comments on that last sport: "what. yeah. I played soccer." In the future, she’d like to be an expert Gundam pilot...or an actuary. Personally, I think the first one is a bit more realistic. She doesn’t have a set age for when she wants to get married because she believes that age doesn’t matter as long as you find the perfect person. She’s also like to have two children if she can manage to normalize because she would never want to torture a child by raising him/her with her kind of personality (her words, I swear). 

     Other than what’s been said above, she’s a pretty normal Asian college student. Totally and utterly in love with Asian dramas, be it Korean or Taiwanese. She flails like a fangirl when she sees Lee Min Ho (don’t worry if you have no idea who that is), but she also flails when she sees new online games, new manga, and new anime. 

A couple random tangents we happened to get into:

Sarah: Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?

Stevie: ...Pointed drama reference! Sure. I prefer to think of them as far-off Autobots vanquishing the Decepticons, though. Either that, or Macross variable fighters. 

Sarah: DO YOU WANT TO BE THE BEST THERE EVER WAS?

Stevie: I WANT TO BE THE VERY BEST THAT NO ONE EVER WAS. TO CATCH THEM ALL IS MY REAL TEST; TO TRAIN THEM IS MY CAUSE! We are talking about bishies, right?

     Anyhow, I think you’ve learned as much as you possibly could about Stevie in the 15 minutes it didn’t take you to read this article. At least you were entertained, because I was definitely entertained reading her responses. You wouldn’t expect such a charismatic, enthusiastic, and super super weird personality when you first see Stevie. But once you get to know her a bit more, it’s hard for you to expect otherwise when you do see her. It’s quite a paradox, if I do say so myself.